Government asks BSF to use tennis balls instead of Rubber bullets on Bangladeshi infiltrators

New Delhi. The government recently advised the BSF to use non lethal weapons like Tennis balls to address Bangladesh’s concerns of high causalities across the border. This follows Bangladeshi’s side compliant that there has been no sizable reduction in the causalities since the time the BSF started using the rubber bullets instead of the actual bullets.

“The rubber bullet hit my nose and bent my nose,” said Ata Rehman, one of the victims of the rubber bullet , while Yosuf Hanif was hit just below his right eye while attempting to fetch the cattle delivered by the smugglers on the Indian side . The Bangladeshi side claims that such injuries still happen and blamed the aggressive tactics of BSF men.

“The continued causalities (read injuries) have strained the friendly relations between the two countries, and we will take essential steps to establish good bilateral relations between the neighbors. Also we adhere to the Gandhian principle of non violence and hence making efforts to be seen as a peace loving nation. The current proposal shall prove our credentials as a non violent nation,” said the Indian Home minister.

On being asked if the same policy applied to dealing with the protestors in India, he waded it off as an internal matter. “Since the rubber bullets have been found ineffective we have decided on this innovative idea, which has never been followed before anywhere in the world. This will also reduce costs on ammunition and maintenance of the rifles and help the men develop good skills of throwing and aiming at the targets,” Shinde said.

The AITA(All India Tennis Association) has also welcomed the decision and has pledged to support the government towards the novel initiative.

“We are proud to be associated with this novel initiative and this will help popularize the sport in India ever since the association gained publicity for all the wrong reasons in spite of fielding the best ever teams at the London Olympics. A demo for the BSF men will be organized featuring Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes amongst others who will be throwing the tennis balls at each other across net (read Border),” said AITA president.

On recent suggestion of legalizing the cattle smuggling (read Cattle trade by the Bangladeshi side), Rehman-ul claimed that there is no need for the same contrary to the suggestions of the outgoing IGP of BSF Mr. Bansal:

“Very soon there will be demographic changes across the borders with ample Bangladeshi population in the Indian side as the human /people smuggling has never been a concern across both the sides, and with scores of Bangladeshis crossing over to the Indian side there will be no need to legalize the cattle trade as the trade will gradually decline (classic case of demand meeting the supply). In this way we can help the Indian government to end the cattle trade (called cattle smuggling by certain sections in India).”